“E” is for Expectations

Something that is prevalent in our world is having expectations for our marriage. We go into the whole process with them. It starts even before the marriage vows are voiced. We have expectations for the proposal, the engagement, the wedding, the honeymoon, and the entire ’til death do us part’ life we want to have. And there is nothing inherently wrong with having expectations. We have expectations of ourselves and that can drive us to be better people. It can be healthy. But it can also be dangerous. How? By having unnecessary or unrealistic expectations. Certainly we should have reasonable expectations of our spouses, our marriages and even ourselves, but we have to be careful not to let our expectations take over our common sense. Like everything else in our marriage, expectations must build our relationship. If our expectations tear down our marriage, then we need to revise them and make them realistic and healthy.

God has expectations of us with regard to our marriages and so we should have them as well.

What are some expectations that we should have in our marriages?

We should expect to be treated with love and respect

We should expect faithfulness from our spouse

We should expect our marriage to be a safe haven

We should expect trials and prepare to handle them together with God

We should expect imperfection in ourselves and our spouse

We should expect to be stronger with God in the center of our marriage

We should expect to be weak when we do not take care of our marriage

We should expect conflict and work through it in a healthy manner

-Loraine Nunley

What are some of your expectations for your marriage? Are they realistic expectations? Are they healthy expectations? Tell us in the comments.